Israeli occupation authorities have acknowledged the role of Saudi Arabia in fighting weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, PLS48 news website reported on Sunday.

Citing Israeli radio, PLS48 reported that a prominent Israeli source has revealed that Saudi Arabia is playing a major role in limiting attempts to smuggle weapons into Gaza, weapons that would be used to support the efforts of the Palestinian resistance.

Saudi Arabia, the source said, placed considerable pressure on Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir in order to stop his cooperation with Iran regarding the smuggling of weapons.

Playing on Al-Bashir’s need for regional and international legitimacy in the wake of the International Criminal Court’s accusations that he has committed war crimes, Saudi Arabia demanded that he stop cooperating with Iran in return for normalising bilateral relations.

The Israeli source also reportedly claimed that the Sudanese port of Sudan had previously been used to unload Iranian weapons, which were then smuggled through Egyptian Sinai to the Gaza Strip.

According to the source, the Saudi efforts have been in collaboration with Egypt’s post-coup military regime, which for its part has demolished hundreds of tunnels reportedly used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. In reality, most of these tunnels were being used to smuggle humanitarian goods and medicines into Gaza, where Palestinians are struggling to live under a draconian siege.

PLS48 noted that in the past, Israel has carried out several attacks on convoys that were said to be carrying weapons en route to the Gaza Strip. In 2012, Israeli warplanes targeted what was said to be a huge store of weapons along the outskirts of Khartoum.

Israeli war drones also reportedly targeted several Sudanese citizens who they claimed had been involved in operations to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian news website, chief analyst of Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth Ron Ben-Yishai, after investigating the matter, previously revealed information about the involvement of Saudi Arabia in facing weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Former Israeli Ambassador to Cairo Zvi Mazel also reportedly mentioned in a study that the rapprochement between Al-Bashir and Egyptian coup leader Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi was based on their common enmity towards Islamist movements.